


strike the wheel

by rites (Rites)



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, M/M, Nora owns a club, The White Fang is a Gang
Language: Español
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2019-11-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:47:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21536191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rites/pseuds/rites
Summary: Blake’s face is inscrutable as she treats her cigarette like a stick of incense. She looks almost holy, Yang muses, as she’s crowned by wafts of smoke and sadness that pools in her eyes.
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, side Neptune Vasilias/Sun Wukong
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	strike the wheel

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, I haven't written anything in years but I hope this little rust bucket experiment is something you'd enjoy. I don't like planning things out because they hardly ever come into fruition but I would hope to write more in this alternate universe. I'm just in love with the idea of love and I hope that my writing feels that way.
> 
> Anyway thank you and please enjoy! <3

The club near Beacon Academy was by no means shady.

Okay, it was a little shady, Yang had to admit. But Yang had been coming here for around two years and nothing other than the occasional bar brawl and mild turf war between the two main gangs in the area would ensue. And it wasn’t even on a regular basis. The Valkyrie was shady in the way frat parties were and tonight was particularly rowdy one. The walls were plastered (much like the partygoers) with old flyers of underground bands, the floor littered with red plastic cups, crumpled beer cans and cigarette butts. People were making out and grinding on the dance floor, others were doing who knows what in darkened corners of the establishment. People with less action going on, like Yang, were waiting for their friend to come back with more drinks. 

  
The black-haired girl standing across her looked out of place. Not in a bad way, Yang mused. She thought the girl stood out like plumes of smoke and flame in a dark, rich forest or some stupid poetic shit like that. God, what was in that last drink? Whatever it was, she felt it impossible to look away and she felt swelteringly hot even when she wasn’t in direct line of sight.

  
And what a sight to behold. The girl mostly wore black. Her skirt, her jacket (leather, Yang observed), her top that looked intricate with thin black straps interweaving to dapple small diamond patterns on her pale skin. Even her book was bla- _Wait, why would anyone bring a book to The Valkyrie?_ Yang had to raise a brow at that. It clearly wasn’t that kind of club. Not by a long shot, especially if you counted the topless and ripped blond boy just absolutely getting wasted right next to her. She saw the black-haired girl giving the boy a bemused look before playfully elbowing him in the ribs.

  
Right as the girl’s elbow was coming in contact with his ribs, Yang jumped with a start as well. “Ah! Hey!” she yelped, wincing as she rubbed the same spot. 

“I can hear you thinking all the way from the bar, you know.” Weiss placed her hands on her hips, her chin turned high and was just completely being very, very unapologetic. Yang scowled at her until she saw the shots on the table. Then she just pouted a little.

  
“Look, I spotted a girl,” Yang rolled her eyes before subtly wagging her brows towards Book Girl, “And I don’t know how to approach her.”

“Really? You? Not knowing how to approach anyone? Since when?”

“Like right now? Geez, I dunno, look, she brought a fucking book here.”

“I’ve literally seen you flirt through worse.”

“Okay well, she looks… taken?” There was the boy to consider.

There was a pause.

“Yeah, I’m not so sure about that.” 

Yang turns to see the blonde boy proving exactly what kind of club this was by taking body shots from this equally fit blue-haired guy that was lying on this flimsy as hell plastic table. He was practically on top of him licking a trail of salt from the collar bone down to his abdomen and then some. Which is… oh…. lordy.

Another nudge to her ribs. Ow. “Oh my god just go! I haven’t seen you like this since, well, ever.”

Yang puffed her chest a little. Yeah, Weiss was right. She’s always been forward, always been smooth (she likes to think). Needless to say, she has had a lot of notches on her belt and this shouldn’t be any different. 

“Yeah, yeah, I should.” Yang looked at Weiss before turning away, “This is nothing, I got this.”

“Never said you didn’t, girl.”

With another roll of her eyes, she turned to look at the girl. And the girl was…..looking right back at her?

_Oh?_

Yang felt her eyes widen a bit, jaw becoming a little slack and heard someone snicker behind her.

“Looks like someone’s getting some attention tonight.”

“Shut up!” she hissed under her breath.

Well, this was awkward. Yang initially planned to sidle next to Book Girl, two drinks in hand. Say something witty to get her attention, hopefully enough to put her book away. Smirk here, engage in a little verbal foreplay there. The works. It was a plan that was churning in her head before dropping dead at her feet the moment she locked eyes with her.

  
Weiss was _definitely_ grinning like an asshole now.

Well, what else could she do but stop dead in her tracks. Especially when she was walking towards- _Oh my god she’s walking towards m-_  
_“_

Hey,” Book girl’s voice was sweet and low. Shit.

“Hey yourself.” It came out more like an undignified squeak. Yang thought she heard someone losing their shit in the distance. Her sister was going to hear a lot about this later tonight it seemed.

“Look,” Book girl sighed, crossing her arms before gently tapping the spine of her book on Yang’s chest, “I know that look and I’m going to have to stop you right there.”

“Huh?” 

“I’m sorry,” she pauses, “I-I can’t reciprocate to this.”

She felt like a rubber band being snapped back into place. “Yeah no! It’s okay uh- I mean thanks for clearing that up but like it’s fi-“

“OHHHH WHO’S THIS, BLAKE?”

Like a highly intoxicated angel, the blond boy was back, one arm slung across the blue-haired boy’s shoulders she saw earlier, and leaning quite heavily on the girl. Not that she could focus on that.

 _Blake, so her name’s Blake._ It was really pretty. God, she was really pretty.

“Sun! Get off me!” She shoved him off her and then had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

 _Oh okay, charm on._

“Hi! I’m Yang!” She swooped in holding out her hand to Son(?), “Looks like you’ve been really enjoying yourself.” And he really looked it. The dark marks on his neck trailing downwards were a dead giveaway.

“You’re really charming!” Sun(?) yelled above the music, “Blake, Blake, Blake…buddy…” He lets go of the blue-haired boy to curl both of his hands around Blake’s shoulders. He leans in close to her ear. “She’s totally your type, man. Fucking get it!” 

Blake flushes red in an instant.

“Sun,” she grits her teeth, “I know you think you’re whispering right now,”

She breathes in.

“But you really aren’t.”

“Ah, fuck really?”

Blake face-palms so hard that Yang was afraid her face would cave in. The entire situation was so bizarre and so sudden that she couldn’t help but let out a little snort. 

Big mistake. Blake huffed loudly, stuffing her book in her jacket before stomping away in the direction of the exit, through a thick crowd of people basically gyrating against each other on the dance floor.

_Ah, shit._

“Oh shit, Blake!” Son/Sun(?) was about to reach towards Blake but before Yang could think twice, she was already running towards her. 

Blake moved like a cat, slinking through the crowd with such ease while Yang simply barreled through like an inebriated bull in a china shop. Shoving disgruntled couples out of the way, spilling a couple of cheap drinks on the floor, the kind of shit that would start a good old-fashioned bar brawl. Not that she cared right now, she had something else to do. 

She finally caught up with her as soon as she was outside of the establishment. Nothing less than barging out the door. She leaned against the heavy metal door, panting slightly. “Jesus Christ, you move fast, you know.”

Blake sat on the curb of the street, arms curled around her knees while looking down at the gutter.

Guilt gnawed at her chest and Yang rubbed her forearm while looking away.

“Hey, uh…. look..” Still looking away, “Sorry for that. I made things pretty awkward”

Blake closed her eyes and sighed. Her hands, _Gosh she has really pretty han- no wait fucking stop that-_ , reaching up to massage her temples. “No, don’t worry it wasn’t really your fault. Sun was being dumb and drunk. It’s fine.”

“Do you smoke?”

“Sorry what?”

“I said, do you smoke?” Yang withdrew a pack of cigarettes from her back pocket. She proceeded to sit on the curb, a foot away from Blake, hand still outstretched.  
Blake sighed. _She tends to do that a lot, huh?_ “Not normally, no,” but her hand pulls on a cigarette slowly and surely. She slips it between her teeth, lightly keeping it in place despite the tension in her jaw and her eyes. 

“May I?” 

And she nods. Yang finds herself scooching forward. One hand on the ready to flick the striker wheel and the other to cup the flame.   
The flame comes alive and the first thing that Yang notices is that the fire is nearly the same color as Blake’s eyes. Molten gold. She wonders how long she can stay afloat before drowning.

_Alright, cut it out with the cheesy shit._

Blake’s head is bent low, her the stick pinched between two fingers. For a second, their eyes meet.

Yang feels a momentary grip in her chest. She nearly drops the lighter and the moment is gone as quickly as it came. 

_Right, yeah._

She lights her own cigarette and takes a deep puff, closes her eyes, feeling the warm smoke trickle out of her nose and mouth. 

“So I just recently got out of a really bad relationship.”

Blake’s face is inscrutable as she treats her cigarette like a stick of incense. She looks almost holy, Yang muses, as she’s crowned by wafts of smoke and sadness that pools in her eyes.

Yang stayed silent, nodding along solemnly.

“It hasn’t been easy…for a lot of reasons. And I don’t think I’ve been helping the situation either.” 

She breathes in deeply.

“Sun, he’s a real one, he’s been the only one trying to help with anything.”

“If it’s alright for me to ask, what about your family?”

She winces.

“Oh- hey sorry uh, nevermin-“

“I ran away, joined the White Fang and never looked back.”

_White Fang? As in THAT White Fang?_

“Yeah, that one.”

She giggles a little, which catches you a little off guard. To be fair she has been catching you off guard a lot in general.

“You know for someone who looks like they kick ass on a regular basis, you’re surprisingly soft and easy to read.”

“Oh hey, come on! That’s no way to talk to someone you just met!”

“I didn’t say it was a bad thing.” And she gives Yang the smallest smile. Her hand hovers to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. 

Yang fucking melts.

“For someone who looked ready to combust when that guy opened his mouth, you’re pretty relaxed right now.”

She smirks, “Guess I needed one hell of an ice breaker.”

Yang laughs at that, “Yeah, guess you did.”

There’s a beat as she catches her eyes again. 

  
“Okay, look can we start again?” Yang said, snuffing out the cigarette butt on the pavement before standing to throw it in the nearest trash can.  
Blake perks up at that, “Oh! Yeah.” She sheepishly looks away.

“Hey, I get it, Blake, don’t worry about it.” Yang says, patting the dust off her pants, “It’s not a great time and I respect that. Maybe it won’t ever be but like, it’s fine. I don’t mind.” And she really didn’t.

She thinks this as she reaches her hand out again.

“Hi, I’m Yang. Nice to meet you.”

Blake’s expression is unreadable at first, but she takes her hand and gives that little smile. The molten gold crinkles at the edges and again, Yang’s heart stops for a moment.

“Blake and likewise.”

  



End file.
